Can You Be Taught Wrong and Baptized Right?

I have had the blessed privilege of studying the Bible with many precious souls over the years. I can tell you that it is nothing short of amazing to see the Word of God working in someone’s life (it’s one of the things I love most about ministry)! Whenever a seeker begins to make the connections and realize the status of their soul, it puts them on the precipice of the most important decision of their life – to obey the Gospel or not. Most often, they come to understand what they need to do, tears will flow, we will pray a prayer of rejoicing, and then they will put on Christ in baptism. It is an uncomplicated, simple process God has made very clear in the Bible. However, from time to time, some will respond by indicating that they have already been baptized. After learning all the things required by God to be saved, they will say, “Yeah, that’s what I did. That’s how I did it,” even though the group they were previously associated with is widely known to not teach baptism as essential for salvation. So, is it possible to be taught wrong and baptized right? Let’s consider what the Bible says about this subject. In Acts 18, there was a man by the name of Apollos, who “being fervent in spirit, spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.” (18:25) In other words, Apollos was not teaching the whole truth about baptism. He simply didn’t know. Subsequently, “when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:26). So, Apollos had to be corrected in his teaching. What was it that that needed to be corrected about his teaching? The answer is found in the next chapter of the Book Acts, chapter 19. When Paul the Apostle had traveled to Ephesus, he encountered some disciple who had not learned the whole truth about Christian baptism. “He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’ ” Paul responded, “Into what then were you baptized?”‘ So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” (Acts 19:1-3) Much like Apollos, they had only been taught about John’s baptism, to which they had submitted. However, Paul explained to them, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (19:4-5) The baptism they had submitted to was NOT what God now requires after Jesus’s death. Notice first, that Paul, upon meeting “disciples” automatically assumed they were baptized. This teaches us that an Apostle (with the authority of Jesus) was expecting them to have obeyed the Gospel according to the prescribed pattern for salvation that had begun on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-41) and had been taught to all since. It included baptism. This means that baptism is not only a part of God’s requirement to receive salvation (Mark 16:16), but it is also an apostolic command (Acts 10:48). Secondly, notice that Paul showed them the whole truth about Christian baptism. Notice also that they did not respond with, “Yeah, that’s what I did. That’s how I did it.” Instead, they immediately were baptized anew. In other words, they recognized that there was a more current, specific, and accurate teaching that superseded what they had been taught. We can’t say they were “taught wrong” because John’s baptism was a divine baptism (Mark 11:30). But, when they learned the full truth about baptism, they did not hesitate to get right with God! They had been taught one thing, and obeyed, but later learned that it wasn’t all that God required of them. They didn’t try to justify. They obeyed. There are many today who have “obeyed the Gospel” according to what they had been taught by groups who are known to not teach the truth. But they were taught wrong because the whole truth was not given. Thus, these Ephesian disciples teach us a valuable lesson: You can NOT be taught wrong and baptized right.